Anderson said that the organizations are also working together to ensure that Harvard students, and even those beyond its gates, do not forget the disaster in Haiti after the next few weeks.

"The Harvard Haitian Alliance is a really small organization," Anderson said. "It's often overlooked. [The earthquake's] a tragedy, but at the same time it's an opportunity for the school to see how much of an impact it's had on the entire world."

CONTINUING HOPE

Watching CNN on that cold night was frustrating, Arbuthnott said, because there were no visuals, no pictures to help him envision the destruction in discussion on television. He recalled the shanty cement homes built on hillsides—and he feared the worst.

“The hardest part in this entire thing is not knowing, because you don't know what is going on,” said Alix, whose parents own orphanages and schools in Haiti. “There are so many people I know who have lost someone, or they know people who have lost someone. There are people who are dying who need to be helped.”

“I hope it awakens Americans and the world to a fixable problem,” Arbuthnott said. “The people there are very strong-willed, but you can’t just provide aid and walk away.”

Arbuthnott said that before arriving in Haiti on Dec. 27, 2009, his family had told him about the hope expressed by the natives, despite their poverty, even before the earthquake struck.

“There was a sense of optimism," Arbuthnott said. "I felt it when I was there."

—Staff writer Xi Yu can be reached at xyu@college.harvard.edu.